FIG. 1(a) and FIG. 1(b) illustrate a method of brazing cap 12 to an end of a tube or pipe 14. A sufficiently uniform joint clearance, xjc, is required so that filler metal 16 will flow into the annular volume of the joint clearance when the filler metal is raised to liquidus temperature by heating the cap and pipe joint region.
Typically joint clearance, xjc, is somewhere in the range of one to five thousandths of an inch around the entire annular region of the joint to achieve a satisfactory brazed joint. Maintaining these tolerances raises cap and pipe manufacturing quality control issues; tighter tolerances may require more expensive cap and pipe manufacturing equipment along with more expensive handling provisions.
It is one objective of the present invention to provide a process for satisfactorily braze joining articles without the requirement for maintaining a tight tolerance in the concentricity of adjacent regions of the workpieces to be joined in the joint clearance region, such as the concentricity of the inside sleeve fitting tube to be joined in the joint clearance region shown FIG. 1(a) and FIG. 1(b).